White boys who grew up with Black neighbors are more likely to become Democrats, study finds.
The findings, described in the journal Science Advances, suggest that young boys exposed to people of different backgrounds may grow up to be more liberal-minded adults.
"White men who had a Black neighbor in 1940, compared to white men who did not, are more likely to be associated with racially liberal politics, as indicated by their registration with the Democratic Party even as late as 2017," the authors wrote.
It’s an idea supported by converging lines of evidence from economics, political science, psychology and sociology, said Linda Tropp, a social psychologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who was not involved in the study.
As diversity rises in the U.S. and other western countries, it has been met with stiff resistance from some quarters, said Ryan Enos, a political scientist at Harvard University and one of paper’s lead authors.
One thing we know from a lot of academic research — and we know this from just our own two eyes — is that there can often be negative consequences of [diversity] because some people aren't comfortable with it,” Enos said.
Recent history in the U.S. provides a host of examples. Enos pointed to the 2016 election of Donald Trump, a Republican who took office following the nation’s first Black president, Barack Obama, a Democrat.
On the campaign trail, Trump courted voters with rhetoric frequently deemed racist or xenophobic. It was Trump supporters who led the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol following the former president’s attempts to cast doubt over his reelection loss.
But many researchers argue that the negative reactions to diversity, including discrimination and social and political instability, are short-term effects — and that diverse societies can grow to be very successful in the long run.
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/20...ats-study-finds
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